A Date with the DESIGNER | Rebekah O’callaghan

Ever wondered how our Adelaide Central team produce such beautiful spaces? Let us introduce you to one of our SHINING STARS – Rebekah O’Callaghan!

Rebekah is our Adelaide interior designer, working wonders with the team at Total Fitouts Adelaide Central. For Brett Kelly (Owner at Total Fitouts Adelaide Central) and the team, Rebekah and her amazing taste for commercial interiors was a game-changer. Rebekah has been the head design guru in our Adelaide office for close to two years now and as the business grows, so does Rebekah’s love for all things fitouts!

Having expressed a love for design even as a child, Rebekah has truly followed her bliss and found her way to commercial fitouts where she enjoys making people’s visions come true – day in, day out.

“So far but my proudest project is the ‘Love Stephy’ dessert bar, which we start construction on within the next two weeks – stay tuned for photos! The project brief was ‘Instagramable’ so we’ve pulled out all the tricks! It will be the most ‘out there’ project I have designed to date and will be so much fun to see when it’s completed.”

If you’re wondering how it all happens (working with a designer/ getting the space of your dreams), let us tell you, it’s a lot of fun! For Rebekah, it’s about letting the client’s do most of the initial talking/ idea spamming. Most client’s will have spent hours pouring over their dream space, and that’s what makes this first step: Listening totally crucial to the process! This gives Rebekah the chance to really grasp the client’s fully-formed ideas and understand what stage the client is at – some people have a million ideas and some people have no idea, either is an absolutely perfect starting point if you’ve got the right designer. This part of the process is a chance to get it all out on the table, and in that sense, the next step is a bit like reassembling a jigsaw puzzle.

So here begins the fun part! Imagining Rebekah were your designer, by your next meeting she would have prepped a very lengthy list of questions for you, this is her opportunity to get a very real sense of not just what you want from your space, but what you NEED (functionality-wise). Some of your ideas may be grand and beautiful, but not so practical. So in this next phase, Rebekah would work her magic designing something of a ‘skeleton’ for the space that is both HYPER-practical (because lets face it, without efficiency, a business can’t work!) and lovely to look at – quite a task, right?!

Next – brainstorming! Working closely together, you and Rebekah would begin brainstorming the basic design layout until a solid foundation starts to take shape…And soon…We have LIFT OFF!

“I then put together a design concept board with images that represent the ‘feel’ of the space we are going for and the layout and design plan, then we back-and-forth until we’ve turned their vision into a full functional plan.”

So there it is, a date with the designer! And just because we like you, here’s a little inside scoop on Rebekah’s FAVOURITE and most used suppliers –

“I have a number of favourite suppliers! Matt Blatt, Temple and Webster, Zanui and Freedom do amazing furniture and decor. Designer Boys art are my go-to for interior artworks, and I can’t go past Beacon without taking a look in at all their amazing range of decorative lighting.”

Looking for a team to handle it all? Talk to Brett Kelly at Total Fitouts Adelaide Central | P. 0401 773 473